MARILYN’S Meldon Madness fell race took place on the afternoon of Saturday, May 17.

Formerly the Great West Fell Run, the race was renamed in memory of ORC Marilyn Cooper and is the first race in the ORC Summer Series and second in the wider SW Fell Runners Summer Series.

Starting and finishing at Meldon Dam, the self-navigating route climbs up to the highest point in south England before a welcome descent via Black Tor and Longstone Hill.

At just over five miles with almost 1400ft of ascent, the race is a tough but beautiful challenge for any off-road runner including sections with no clear path, boulder fields, tussock grass and a super-fast grassy descent to the finish.

Junior races were run before the full senior race and there was a good turnout of 19 runners. The younger juniors ran a 2km course and the older juniors 4kms with both courses including the steep climb up Longstone Hill and the fast downhill back to the dam.

The ORC juniors ran well with Alistair Taylor 1st MU13 in 18:59, followed by Arthur Lane in 21:04 and Thomas Spiers in 25:10, Ruairi Duffield 2nd MU11 in 10:58, followed by Jacob Lane in 11:21, Alice Spiers 2nd FU11 in 13:48 and Ellenor Taylor 2nd FU15 in 24:29.

In the senior race, a new course record of 36:09 was set by Sam Kelly from Exmouth Harriers.

There was a great turnout of ORCs with Luke Stannus 2nd overall in 39:28 and Katie Littlejohn-Riches 1st female in 46:03 (winning her the Marilyn’s Meldon Madness trophy).

Tom Poland was 6th in 42:28, Stewart Taylor 8th in 44:02, Joe Lane 10th in 44:18, Ian Duffield in 45:50, Charlie Temperley in 48:51, Ian Ripper in 52:18, Matt Grint in 1:00:30, Lou Duffield in 1:03:37, Lorna Critchlow in 1:13:51 and Lucy Gooding in 1:26:20.